Today we finally finished The Spear. This book was our Lenten reading but it is a long book, 400 pages long. It is the story of Cassiua Longinus a Roman soldier whose father is betrayed and cheated out of his family fortune. Cassius sets to avenge his father's misfortune and ends up first a slave and then a soldier in Judea. In Judea he comes on contact not only with the puzzling Jews but with the even more puzzling followers of Rabbi Yeshua.
The books is masterfully done. De Wohl pulls together Scripture and his own imagination, and the result is a believable and well told story. The descriptions were in tad too long for the kids. It was a little anti-climatic to read the scene of the crucifixion on Easter Monday but, it was compensated by the reading today of the events following Pentecost. It was a great story and it really enhanced our Lent by fleshing out the events leading to the death of Our Lord.
Showing posts with label liturgical year. Show all posts
Showing posts with label liturgical year. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Friday, April 17, 2009
The Power of the Resurrection
In Easter, with Jesus' resurrection "a new way of living has opened up, a way of living focused in Jesus and the power of his resurrection" (WAU, p.22).
What does this mean? How is our life this week any different than life last week? After all the resurrection, the actual event, happened many, many years ago. How does it affect my life today?
Jesus is the same "yesterday, today and forever". What He did all those years ago, He can do today. In a supernatural but real way, the power of the resurrection is the same today as back then.
What did the resurrection accomplish? Simply put, it changed lives. It transformed the apostles. It made it possible for them to understand, to see and to comprehend the truths of Jesus' teachings.
It is true that the most dramatic changes happened after Pentecost. The time between the resurrection and Pentecost was a slow unfolding of the life that begun when Jesus left the tomb. That Easter time seemed to have gradually affirmed, in the mind of the apostles, the reality of what they had witnessed. I picture them, growing more assured with each apparition of Jesus. Each encounter deposited more confidence in their souls and made them thirst for more. The resurrection began it all.
It was the resurrection, that ultimate miracle, what made believing easier. If God could raise Jesus from the clutches of death, what couldn't He do? With the resurrection everything becomes possible. The resurrection creates an expectant faith.
An expectant faith is fertile ground for receiving the Holy Spirit. Faith that awaits opens itself. Like thirsty ground waiting for water, a soul who expects will receive the Holy Spirit and produce abundant fruit.
The Church, full of wisdom, uses the liturgical year to help us re-live these truths. During Lent our family focused on certain readings. We read the story of the woman at the well. Jesus was for her the Living Water. We read about the man born blind. Jesus was light for him. We read about Lazarus. Jesus was life for him. We meditated on these stories. Jesus is for every person what that person needs.
Now is Easter. Easter comes during spring time, when nature all around us is freeing itself form the grasp of winter. New life is everywhere. It is time for us to have new life too. It is time to make those truths we read about during Lent, be our truth. It is time to let Jesus, who is Living Water, Light and Life, be our Living Water, our Light and our Life. It is time to make the power of the resurrection OURS.
What does this mean? How is our life this week any different than life last week? After all the resurrection, the actual event, happened many, many years ago. How does it affect my life today?
Jesus is the same "yesterday, today and forever". What He did all those years ago, He can do today. In a supernatural but real way, the power of the resurrection is the same today as back then.
What did the resurrection accomplish? Simply put, it changed lives. It transformed the apostles. It made it possible for them to understand, to see and to comprehend the truths of Jesus' teachings.
It is true that the most dramatic changes happened after Pentecost. The time between the resurrection and Pentecost was a slow unfolding of the life that begun when Jesus left the tomb. That Easter time seemed to have gradually affirmed, in the mind of the apostles, the reality of what they had witnessed. I picture them, growing more assured with each apparition of Jesus. Each encounter deposited more confidence in their souls and made them thirst for more. The resurrection began it all.
It was the resurrection, that ultimate miracle, what made believing easier. If God could raise Jesus from the clutches of death, what couldn't He do? With the resurrection everything becomes possible. The resurrection creates an expectant faith.
An expectant faith is fertile ground for receiving the Holy Spirit. Faith that awaits opens itself. Like thirsty ground waiting for water, a soul who expects will receive the Holy Spirit and produce abundant fruit.
The Church, full of wisdom, uses the liturgical year to help us re-live these truths. During Lent our family focused on certain readings. We read the story of the woman at the well. Jesus was for her the Living Water. We read about the man born blind. Jesus was light for him. We read about Lazarus. Jesus was life for him. We meditated on these stories. Jesus is for every person what that person needs.
Now is Easter. Easter comes during spring time, when nature all around us is freeing itself form the grasp of winter. New life is everywhere. It is time for us to have new life too. It is time to make those truths we read about during Lent, be our truth. It is time to let Jesus, who is Living Water, Light and Life, be our Living Water, our Light and our Life. It is time to make the power of the resurrection OURS.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Lenten Plans
I have been working on our plans for Lent. As with Christmas, I want this season to be prayer filled but simple. I want to be realistic in what we can accomplish and not get over ambitious. I don't want to fill my eyes with what others,more organized and more crafty that I, are doing but find a source of inspiration and adapt it to our needs. I don't want to reinvent the wheel year after year so I made sure I looked in our shelves and in the faith binder I have been trying to keep up-to-date.
After some at-home and internet searching this is what I have come up with:
From Charlotte I got the idea of tracking our journey to the cross Inspired by Inos Biffi's book The Liturgical Year we are going to focus on an encounter with Jesus each week. Inos Biffi says:
We are going to take a break from the conversion stories we have been reading. Instead we will focus on one of these encounters by reading and discussing the appropriate Gospel passage
-Week 1: Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman (Jesus as living water)
-Week 2: Jesus' encounter with the man born blind (Jesus as light who illumines the crevices of our hearts and brings our sins and vices to light)
-Week 3: Jesus encounter with Lazarus (Jesus as new life-reconcilation)
-Week 4: Jesus encounter with Peter, who try to discourage him from the path that was set for him (Jesus recommits himself to his mission so we must recommit ourselves to be his disciples)
I will try to depict these in our Lenten journey poster. I will also mark the weekend as oasis in the dessert. Those days were we will take a respite from the Lenten sacrifices
For prayer time, we will use the Divine Mercy Chaplet (also a Charlotte idea) every day except on Fridays when we will do the Stations of the Cross using this book
On Thursdays we will begin to use the subscription to Magnifikids that N. received for Christmas. This promises to be a great resource to prepare for Sunday mass.
There are still some loose ends especially when it comes to the penance and abstinence part. I also need a focus scripture for the fifth week of Lent. I'll give this some more thought and post later.
After some at-home and internet searching this is what I have come up with:
From Charlotte I got the idea of tracking our journey to the cross Inspired by Inos Biffi's book The Liturgical Year we are going to focus on an encounter with Jesus each week. Inos Biffi says:
"The path that takes us to Easter is marked by encounters with Jesus."
We are going to take a break from the conversion stories we have been reading. Instead we will focus on one of these encounters by reading and discussing the appropriate Gospel passage
-Week 1: Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman (Jesus as living water)
-Week 2: Jesus' encounter with the man born blind (Jesus as light who illumines the crevices of our hearts and brings our sins and vices to light)
-Week 3: Jesus encounter with Lazarus (Jesus as new life-reconcilation)
-Week 4: Jesus encounter with Peter, who try to discourage him from the path that was set for him (Jesus recommits himself to his mission so we must recommit ourselves to be his disciples)
I will try to depict these in our Lenten journey poster. I will also mark the weekend as oasis in the dessert. Those days were we will take a respite from the Lenten sacrifices
For prayer time, we will use the Divine Mercy Chaplet (also a Charlotte idea) every day except on Fridays when we will do the Stations of the Cross using this book
On Thursdays we will begin to use the subscription to Magnifikids that N. received for Christmas. This promises to be a great resource to prepare for Sunday mass.
There are still some loose ends especially when it comes to the penance and abstinence part. I also need a focus scripture for the fifth week of Lent. I'll give this some more thought and post later.
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